Kingdom Hearts - Impacting Moments
by Writing1sLife
Summary: A collection of my favorite moments and hints. A tribute to several great actors who brought this series to life and sadly are no longer with us.
1. Chapter 1

Hidden Truths

(A place of silence and darkness)

"Darkness," whispered a voice, old and accented. "Darkness now rules over your heart. It gives me control. Muscle and sinew that once obeyed you now rebels against you." The man smiled at this. "How you can even be here at all confounds the mind." He continued smiling confidently despite the opposition.

"It's still my heart," firmly stated his opponent, a young man with a peculiar metal shoulder piece, black hair, and strong build. "You think that you can simply come inside here and take over? I will not just sit by and let that happen. You won't use me to hurt anyone else."

"Hmph," the man snorted with that wicked smile. "Don't even entertain any notions whatsoever of escaping me boy."

They stood facing each other in an endless abyss of blackness. They were in the realm of the young man's mind, fighting for who had possession of his body. The older man, Xehanort by name, had fused his soul with the body of the youth named Terra. And now the two were fighting for control over their fused self; a fact that was very much noted by the older man. He raised his hands dramatically and his fingers began to flex and curl, an unusual tendency or quirk if you will of his, white leather gloves making stretching sounds.

"In the end," he continued quite confidently, "your heart shall be completely engulfed by mine forever."

"Wrong," calmly returned Terra. Xehanort's lips turned flat at this and his hands lowered slightly. "You're going to get shown the door old man." Xehanort's hands calmly returned to their original position behind his back, right holding the wrist of the left.

"As I do recall," the man calmly replied, his teeth showing in his smile, "you could barely begin to handle your own darkness. How then, shall you triumph over mine?"

Terra's blue eyes did not flinch, causing Xehanort to frown slightly in confusion. The youth merely gave a smile and closed his eyes before speaking. "You'll find out soon enough. Soon enough."

Xehanort's eyes widened a little as he pondered and stared at Terra in deep thought exposing the yellow of his own eyes. Then the old man's eyes narrowed, and his voice lowered a little. "Oh. So that's how it is, is it?" Terra calmly stood there, his smile confident at having caught his opponent off guard, but also secure in his own little advantage. "Someone else has already stepped foot inside of your heart. Eraques, you sly fox." The last statement was more a matter of musing out loud to himself.

Terra opened his eyes and his expression turned to determination. "I am not afraid anymore of the dark, what it holds for me." He placed his hand on his chest right where his heart beat. "Even if you do succeed in wresting control of my heart, even if you were to cast me down into the deepest and darkest of pits, you will never sway me from the one cause that keeps me fighting." He smiled. "Whatever the cost, I am ready to pay it." His hands clenched into fist by his sides, ready for any threatening reaction from the old man.

"Brave words to be sure," returned Xehanort calmly, hands coming from behind his back to his own sides loose and ready. "But I am a patient man," he continued politely, not budging. "We can take as much time as we need in here to settle this little 'property' dispute. However, know this," Terra's eyes narrowed angrily at this new threat, "You are just one of any number of different paths which I may choose to take."

Xehanort's smile was broad and unbending, his yellow eyes blazing with a terrible confidence and mystery. "Trust me, I have personally seen to that. Hm-hm-hmmmm." His chuckling was terrifying, and his little hidden threats added to his menace coupled with the narrowing of his eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

Sadness and Paths of Grief

This place was endless. They stood in the realm of eternal Darkness. Here, the Heartless always manifested, for the Endless Abyss held no light in it whatsoever. Those with hearts who journeyed here, risked being consumed by the empty husks of blackness that sought their hearts, unless they had a Keyblade with which to fight back. But none could stay here forever. They would inevitably fall in a place without light.

But one person of importance had fallen into this place in an act of sacrifice for a friend; and so, King Mickey and Riku had journeyed here to bring her back home at last. Unfortunately, things weren't going as planned. Even the weakest of Heartless here were much stronger than they ever were in the realms of Light. In fact, they now were grouping together into masses around dark cores that permitted them to form into towers or tides that flowed around the battlefield. They were extremely tough to take out. One such Demon Tower had forced them to retreat, for it was simply too strong to overcome.

Riku and King Mickey Mouse were here in this place for the second time. Technically it was the third time in the Dark World, but this was the second time to the Endless Shore. The first time they had come here, they had been repeatedly attacked and their Keyblades had shattered. For Riku, it was something of a personal blow, because the blade he wielded had been with him through various encounters and battles in his life. Losing it was something of a personal loss, but also felt liberating. His newest blade, Braveheart, was a firm and reassuring presence. Still, the reappearance of another Demon Tower was not so comforting.

"Riku!" yelled the King. "Watch out!"

The Demon Tower swung en masse and collided against Riku knocking him unconscious upon the beach of the Unending Shores in the Dark Margin. While Mickey was off guard, the tower swept him up and he dropped his blade. Riku began to stir, in time to realize that the King was now trapped inside of the core that joined the tower. But then something strange happened. The tower collapsed leaving the black sphere with the only the King's face remaining out of it, and a figure suddenly materialized in the heart of the darkness before jettisoning out on to the beach.

Riku couldn't make it out, but the black, ethereal shape walked over to the Keyblade, and picked it up. The blackness swirled and ascended to the heavens like thick smoke as it rolled off the figure who appeared to be contemplating what was in its hand. "This blade…" spoke the figure. Riku and the King both gasped at the sound.

"Oh, my goodness. Is it her?"

The swirling blackness began to disappear like smoke. "Mickey…you're too late." The deadpan, hollow, flat voice continued, "I'm already lost." The figure of the lost Keyblade master turned…revealing yellow eyes.

"Aqua?" gasped Riku. Those eyes…they only appeared in those taken by the Darkness completely. When had she been taken? How long?

"What…what happened?" sadly asked the King.

"You abandoned me, that's what," Aqua said, flat and hollow, even a little angry. "Left me here in this shadow prison for over a whole decade…knowing just what it would do to me…"

The king hung his head at this. "I am sorry. It's all my fault."

Aqua turned and began to walk along the black sand, towards the dark water. A false sun shone in the skies of this place. No true light existed here; only false, empty reminders. "After endless wanderings and untold numbers of steps, I found myself here at this shore. Waited forever for help to arrive." She walked along the water, her feet not dipping beneath the surface. "But no one ever came." Riku didn't say anything; he couldn't.

"My Keyblade was lost…had no way to fight back through the Heartless." The King looked as he might cry now. Riku felt nothing for the moment; merely curiosity at what she would say. "You should have known that I was stranded."

Riku started at her next words. "Do you have any idea at all how lonely it is here? How frightening it is to have no one?" Riku's hand clenched at the painful memories of his own path. "There is nothing left in me now. Just the darkest parts. Misery, despair, pain…and now, you may share in them." She turned now and faced the shore, ten feet away from Riku.

He simply smiled. The blade he had left on the shore was gone. That meant _he_ had come here and retrieved it. He looked and saw him: The Replica Riku. A creation of Namine's, he had fallen into this place after his defeat at Castle Oblivion. Riku had been waiting for him. Now the Replica, invisible to everyone but Riku, melded with him. "No need for any of that," he said simply, summoning Braveheart, "got my all my own. But I don't intend to keep carrying it around."

The black core suddenly sped away from its stationary position over the shore until it was in front of "Anti-Aqua" as Riku had decided to label the turned Master. The water erupted into a spinning vortex of claws, antenna, feet, and countless, pupil-less, yellow eyes. The Demon Tower was back. The King was inside that thing! He needed to get him out of there, then he could deal with Aqua. Power surged through him. "Let's do it!" he yelled with a charge and blast of dark power from his left hand.

The Tower bobbed and weaved across the ink-black water. It coiled and spun madly all over the field of battle, attempting to run into Riku like a tornadoe, only one with a mind united on the destruction of those who had hearts. The mass of darkness was fast and quite resilient. Riku was hitting it with his hardest blows and strongest magic, yet it kept vanishing and reappearing without any apparent damage. The core! He must get the core! But just when he thought he had an opening, Anti-Aqua was there, casting violet-colored Ice magic at him. The Tower regrouped and surged back towards him. For the next several minutes, Riku was trapped in an endless, and repetitious, series of dodges. What blows he saw he blocked, but he could hardly have a moment to stand still and catch a breather. If the Tower wasn't sweeping towards him, then the possessed Keyblade Master was launching deadly magic at him.

He finally felt exhaustion sweep over him and his legs began to bend. This thing just wasn't falling! The strength that had flowed into him was all but exhausted. He was going to be the one to fall before this thing ever did. He just needed a little…little bit more…just a little more…

He needed…help. "Sora…"

As if in answer to his spoken word, to his need, the sky suddenly shone with the light of the sun on a clear day. A door manifested laced with golden artwork. A figure, glowing with light, sprang forth from the open doors in the air to splash down right next to him: Sora, bright and alert, smiling as always. "Whew! Made it!" He nodded to Riku. Both knew what to do. They had this connection that was beyond words. Together, they melded their powers, not unlike the time they had defeated the Lord of Oblivion, Xemnas. This time though, they were not unlocking anything, rather, they were joining their strength together so as to strike a mighty blow that the Demon Tower could not withstand.

Twin Keyblades manifested over the upheld hands of the two youths, then joined together into one massive blade that was actually a fusion of the two halves. It shone with blazing light that literally manifested as golden flames upon it. They gave a yell and the blade swung at their command with a fiery downward arc that clove through the heart of the dark vortex and scattered its remnants into the liquid where they vanished. The King appeared with a yelp before he was hurled away upon the sandy shore.

Riku instantly abandoned any thought except for Mickey's well-being. He raced for the shore, weaponless, only having eyes upon the King who remained motionless. Suddenly he heard the surging of water followed by a growl of effort. He had forgotten Aqua. The altered Keyblade wielder had observed the destruction of the tower, and had then promptly surfed across the waves, now charging for a full-strength swing of her stolen blade at the prone form of Mickey.

Riku called Braveheart and braced himself for impact as Aqua closed in swiftly, right arm rearing back for a devastating strike. Then they collided, water spraying five feet in all directions. But Riku found himself staring at the form of his best friend, with Aqua straining against him, yet being held back evenly. Sparks flew from the locked weapons as Aqua bared teeth and tried to push Sora back. Instead he forced her away back towards the water. "How Sora?" Riku asked. How had he managed to intercept her so swiftly? Sora's own blade vanished, and another one appeared in its place: Defender.

"I…uh…had a little help," was the only reply he had with a smile. Riku felt it best to leave it at that. "Watch the King. I have this," stated Sora focusing his attention towards the blazing yellow eyes of Aqua. Sora summoned the Keyblade to his hands and assumed a ready stance.

"Join me in the dark!" snapped Aqua jabbing Kingdom Key W in Sora's direction, across that short gap of water, on which they stood.

"No," replied Sora, "I am here to bring you home. To the people who are waiting for you, just as you waited for us."

"No one is waiting for me." A dark-violet aura surrounded Aqua and she vanished. She began to teleport around the water, walking around slowly, coldly, indifferent to Sora who kept swinging but missed.

"Fall!" yelled multiple Aqua's firing homing orbs, like pearls of light, at Sora. He somersaulted out of the way. "Enough of you!" Aqua yelled from another position releasing another orb.

Her movements were erratic, and her usage of magic was most impressive, all combined into a great threat for she was determined to end him while he was desperate to not do that, but rather, purge the dark from her. Suddenly he was surrounded by multiple duplicates of Aqua, all of them chanting as each walked in different directions around him.

"Wandered the shadows endlessly."- "No one came for me."- "I waited for so long."- "No one knows what true despair is like…"

"You came here to die, not to live."- "Nobody cared."- "Everything I did for nothing."- "Forgotten."- "Shouldn't have abandoned me."

Where? Where was the real one? Sora readied himself… "Die!" came the collective yell as they all teleported into a circle formation around surround and shot orbs of light at him. He just managed to dodge. He swung and clubbed Aqua successfully after narrowly guarding against a triple attack in which she and two doppelgangers performed a spinning attack against him.

Then there more duplicate yet again surrounding him.

"Ven will never awaken… Terra couldn't be saved…"- "Alone with nothing but the dark…"- "Endless night, wishing for the sun…"- "You have no idea what true despair is…but you will."

"Alone…"- "My pain isn't something you could know…yet."- "Why did I think that he even cared?"- "Just want to fade into the darkness…"- "Trusted you…"

So much pain. The King and Riku heard all of it as they observed the fight. "All of this," whispered the King, "if I had simply realized sooner… Could I have saved her?"

"I know you did everything you could," replied Riku.

"Nobody is going to save you. And no one wants to."- "You will never see the light again."- "Are you truly worthy of being a master?"- "Why did you even follow him? Why believe in him?"- "He cared about you, but not me."

"He didn't know what to do at the time," called out Sora dodging another series of blows and retaliating with fire magic. "But we are here! Now! All of us! And we are bringing you home! Remember, you know the path you are meant to take! You chose to walk it!"

"There is no path, only shadows."- "Nothing but darkness before me."- "Countless footsteps…"- "Endless circling…"

"I gave _**everything**_." The King grimaced at the latest statements. Sora doubled his efforts against the unique movements and ice magic of the former Keyblade Master.

"You're not staying here in the dark any longer!" yelled Sora launching a series of blows. Anti-Aqua blocked only a few. She was clearly weakening. "You! Are coming!" Sora gathered himself for a full-force swing, "HOME!"

"HUAAAAHHHH!" yelled Aqua, Kingdom Key W falling from her limp hands, her clothes turning back from black and tattered rags to her original dress, eyes regaining their original color. The Keyblade vanished in a shimmer of light while Aqua vanished beneath the ink-black water.

. . . . .

"So…this is how it ends." Sinking into a lightless abyss. Surrounding by the nothingness of the dark realm. The tale of Master Aqua told in full.

"Aqua!" What? Was…somebody calling her? The voice…seemed familiar. Like from a dream.

"Wake up! Open your eyes!" She did. A hand? Reaching towards her. Sora? She reached out and grabbed ahold.

. . . . .

Noise. Birds? Seagulls by the sound. And she was resting on…sand! She started to awaken and sat up. "Ven? Terra?"

"No actually," corrected the King to her right with a smile. "It's Riku and Sora. And we're here to. All of us. But we'll get them back. We will get all of them back."

Aqua looked around her at the assortment of friends and those she knew from brief meetings. Then she broke down into tears. The Sun; how long? How long of waiting to feel it on her face again? The wind, the waves, to feel alive again. Aqua wept, knowing she was finally back home, and the nightmare was ended at last.


End file.
